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The National Forum of Engineering Centres
(NFEC) is an independent advisory and lobbying body representing
individuals and organisations across the UK committed to the
exchange of best practice in, and to the consistent delivery
of, best-quality work-based post-16 learning in engineering
and technology. NFEC is not a bureaucracy, but
a self-help, self-funding membership body of employers, group
training providers, professional training companies, FE colleges/departments
and specialist schools.
NFEC uses its membership and commercial consultancy revenues
to offer NFEC members practical assistance without charge
or at reduced cost.
NFEC operates through its regional organisations, regular
regional seminars and twice-yearly annual conference.
For further information or membership application:
visit www.nfec.org.uk
or e-mail businessdevelopment@nfec.org.uk |
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As it happens, it seems that the Chinese do not
have a curse that says ‘may you live in interesting
times’. But someone must have, for we certainly do live
in such a time.
The post-16 sector is experiencing reform on a level unknown
in living memory. The Foster Review, the Leitch Report, employer-led
provision, Sector Skills Councils, Specialist Diplomas, Foundation
Degrees and now, Skills Academies. I could go on.
If you missed our National Conference on 30 November and 1
December, then you missed a great opportunity to hear the
latest on all these fronts straight from the horses’
mouths, as well as to question said “horses”,
for the speakers were all key players in the current upheaval.
Delegates were also able to network with colleagues from all
over the country, and to discuss what NFEC should do both
locally and nationally to make sense of the current “alphabet
soup” of forever-mutating bureaucracies and VQs.
NFEC will continue to ensure your voice is heard and your
needs considered. We are investing substantially throughout
England and Wales to make local voices heard, local issues
identified, and local action taken. And, if that is what it
takes, to see that local concerns feed into the national debate.
The E-Bulletin is part of this investment, and with your
help it is bound, I feel, to become essential reading.
William Devine
CEO, NFEC
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Lord Leitch
But will Labour back him, or back out? |
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Lord Leitch has produced a 150-plus page report, 'Prosperity
for all in the global economy - world class skills'
The Chancellor of the Exchequer accepts it.
The Financial Times says he will forget it.
So what difference is the Leitch Report likely to make?
Not much, says William Devine. If, that is, government clings
to its preference for writing and talking over doing anything
about FE.
If so, then Leitch will go the way of the Foster Report and
become a ‘nice idea’, under-funded and largely-ignored
by our masters. Leitch sets out the case for investing in skills,
provides a vision for the UK economy, and outlines principles
for improving poverty of ambition.
His recommendations amount to a far-reaching reform agenda,
on paper, that is.
Leitch warns that unless the UK can build on reforms to schools,
colleges and universities, making the skills base a national
strength, then UK businesses will find it increasingly difficult
to compete.
Improving the skills of the youngsters most at risk of exclusion
or self-exclusion from training is, Lord Leitch argues, central
to making the most of labour market opportunities and to the
realisation of a prosperous and fair society.
The possible net benefit of productivity growth, increase in
employment a reduction in deprivation, poverty and inequality
is put more than £80 billion over 30 years.
If, however, the government backs Leitch (a Labour peer) to
the hilt, then I am sure we will see a level of investment in
education and training commensurate with realising that £80
billion opportunity!
Principles outlined by Leitch as underpinning reform
of the skills agenda include:
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More action and investment on behalf of employers, individuals
and the government |
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Development of skills providing real returns for employers,
individuals and society |
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A demand-led system meeting the needs of individuals
and employers |
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A responsive and adaptable skills system |
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Simplification, rationalisation and improved performance
of current structures. |
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So what’s new?
None of this is really new. Nor is the difficulty embedded within
the British culture of getting people to make a personal investment
of time, effort and money in learning.
The same goes for the hopes of persuading employers to add much
to what they already invest in training.
A
“demand-led system” is the prescription currently
favoured by skills doctors. But on its own, a demand-led system
is not a cure-all.
Early evidence points to employers making the same mistake made
by the educators in the 70s and 80s: handing out prescriptions
from an ivory tower. Not the same tower, but still made of the
same ivory.
Employers and providers must come together outside their respective
towers if they are to develop a world-class ‘Learning
Supply Chain’.
Simply to train for the skills of today is to rehearse the mistakes
of the yesterday. Today is only a small part of what education
is about.
We must not lose sight of the fact that education is about learning
to learn, about developing learners who can come up with solutions
but can also ask the right questions. What value a questioning
mind?
Real progress is being made towards training for ‘more
than today’. The rate of that progress, however, is alarmingly
slow: the danger is that existing values and best practice will
not only be lost but become valueless in the eyes of the new
power-brokers who are held to represent the best interests of
the employer.
NFEC has a role to play – and will play it - in ensuring
that the engineering and technology ‘learning Supply Chain’
meets the demands of the employer, UK PLC, but also the needs
of UK society.
What price failure?
Leitch’s far-ranging recommendations include: |
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Increasing adult skills at all levels through additional
investment by the state, employers and individuals |
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Government commitment to increasing the share of GDP
allocated to education and skills |
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All public funding for adult vocational skills (apart
from community learning) to be routed through interventions
such as Train to Gain and Learner Accounts by 2010 |
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Creation of a new Commission for Employment and Skills
through the merger of SSDA and the National Employment
Panel, and reformed and expanding Sector Skills Councils
(SSCs) |
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Greater employer commitment to train to Level 2 by seeking
a voluntary 'pledge'; if there’s nothing doing by
2010, voluntary commitment will be replaced by statutory
entitlement |
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Higher employer investment in Levels 3 and 4 through
extending Train to Gain to include higher levels, more
apprenticeships and co-funded workplace degrees |
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Stepping up cooperation between employers and universities |
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Awareness-raising programmes, development of a new adult
careers service and further rationalisation of 'information
silos' to improve people's aspirations and awareness of
the value of skills |
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A new, integrated employment and skills service to increase
sustainable employment and progression |
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A network of local employer-led Employment and Skills
Boards to see that local services meet employer needs
and help the workless to qualify for and find work |
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Truly, we ‘live in interesting times’
Whatever is done or not done about making Leitch worth the paper
it is written on and the millions it cost to write, NFEC and
our member-base of organisations at the heart of the skills
agenda will work to protect and further “education, education,
education”.
The government must invest significantly to reap this £80
Billion harvest. For once much of this investment should be
directed at colleges and other providers to fully engage with
employers.
We’ll be telling the Government so.
Oh, and there’s an extra non-cash investment to be made.
Politicians of all stripes should learn to trust the post-16
education and training sector, the doers, the people with the
experience to save future legislators from making the same old
mess as in the past.
We do not need a nanny.
A more detailed analysis
of the Leitch Report appears on the website. |
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John Penrose MP:
FE at the forefront now |
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Is FE the Cinderella of the education sector?
Maybe so, but things are looking up.
The FE and lifelong learning sector is “winning at the
moment”, says John Penrose, the influential Tory MP for
Weston-Super-Mare.
The profile of FE and lifelong learning is on the way back to
where it deserves to be, which is “at the forefront of
political thought and action in education”, Mr Penrose
adds.
The Somerset MP has just been elected co-chairman to Kelvin
Hopkins (Labour, Luton North) of the All-Party Parliamentary
Group (APPG) for Further Education and Lifelong Learning.
He told NFEC News “FE and lifelong learning have been
the Cinderella of the education sector for far too long.
“Today, however, I was interviewing Lord Leitch, who came
to give evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee of
which I’m also a member.
“I hope that Lord
Leitch’s report is set to radically change the landscape
and raise the profile of the sector to where it deserves to
be, which is at the forefront of political thought and action
in education. Whether you agree with the report's recommendations
or not, it has focused attention on the issues and got the debate
underway.”
Mr Penrose says his “hope” is bolstered by comments
made by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his
pre-Budget statement ahead of the Leitch Report of the need
to improve the nation’s skills.
“There
is always the danger, when it comes to making firm spending
commitments and signing cheques, that the reality will turn
out to less impressive than the rhetoric. The initial support
for Lord Leith from the Treasury has seemed pretty strong –
but it’s early days yet.”
What, then in days to come can FE professionals do to press
for that political support to continue? Mr Penrose says simply
“Don’t let the pressure slacken – the FE and
lifelong learning sector is winning at the moment.
“The Leitch Report and the reaction to it implies that
this issue is already coming up the political agenda at the
moment, and we need to maintain that movement, and not derail
it by just sitting back.”
APPG, he adds, is one channel the sector should make the most
of in exerting that “pressure”.
Mr Penrose has been both banker and management consultant, but
has a particular interest in training, education and lifelong
learning. He is a former chairman of Logotron, a publisher of
software for schools, and was once MD of Longman, publishers
of school textbooks for the UK and parts of Africa.
The APPG, Mr Penrose explains, is a cross-party group of MPs
and peers interested in FE and lifelong learning.
“This
APPG’s aims are to give people – like NFEC members-
in the FE and lifelong learning sector a chance to make sure
that policymakers in Parliament are fully aware of new trends,
new thinking, new directions in FE.”
Mr Penrose also sees the APPG as “a forum in which FE
practitioners can cross-question the relevant Ministers and
senior officials – who we invite to attend APPG - on what
their plans are for the future.”
Two names which figure on the current APPG guest-list are those
of Bill Rammell, the Skills Minister, and Lord Leitch, author
December's Skills Audit report.
If you come along to the Commons for an APPG meeting, you find
yourself among a mixture of other MPs and other stakeholders,
with a mixture of people asking the questions.
“At
the last meeting I chaired, we had a dozen, a dozen-and-half
MPs, a couple of college principals, plus representatives from
a number of trades unions and FE institutions. I and my fellow-members
look forward welcoming NFEC to APPG,” Mr Penrose says. |
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Campaign time:
it’s your shout |
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On funding, NFEC needs evidence from you, through
the website on : |
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How you manage change under reduced FE and WBL funding
and the need for employers to increase contributions. |
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On staffing, again through the website, tell us about: |
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Hard-to-fill vacancies |
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Pay scales where you work |
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Skills shortages |
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Courses closed or damaged by staff shortage |
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Qualitative data on learner uptake and success compared
with other sectors |
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FE-ism is the sidelining of Further Education, deliberately
or (more often) carelessly, in public policy or discussion of
such policy.
A good example of FE-ism s is a report in The Daily Telegraph
of 1 December, in which Liz Lightfoot, the paper’s Education
Correspondent drew up an end-of-term report card for the soon-to-be
ex-Prime Minister’s record on education.
Ms Lightfoot scored Mr ‘Education, Education, Education’
as ‘Effort Grade: B’ and ‘Achievement: D’
On HE, for example, Mr Blair’s record shows that the participation
rate of young people fell from 42.3% in 2003/4 to 42% in 2004/5,
some way behind the PM’s 2010 target rate of 50%. Moreover,
children from professional homes are three times more likely
than other children to study for a degree. But on Mr Blair’s
track record on FE, not a word in Ms Lightfoot’s report.
There might have been an FE section that was cut to fit the
available hole in the page; even so, the choice of FE for the
chop would have a whiff of FE-ism about it. NEFC fired off a
letter to the Telegraph, yet to be published, suggesting that
Ms Lightfoot’s “Blair School Report” deserves
only B minus for omitting FE from her list of principal education
issues.
The PM’s record on FE, the letter suggested, “is
not so much woeful as largely blank”:
A NFEC school report on the Prime Minister, the NFEC letter
concludes, would read “Late starter: much ground to make
up”.
For the text of the NFEC letter visit www.nfec.org.uk/latestarterletter.pdf
Why not tell us if you see, hear or read an example
of FE-ism? Email info@nfec.org.uk,
marking your message “FOR NFEC NEWS”. |
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NFEC conference return fixture?
SEMTA’s Sir Alan Jones
On business plan, marketing and finance we hit
the ground running: NFEC chairman John Lockey |
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Your Autumn 2006 National Conference was very well-received,
delegates complimenting the professionalism of NFEC conference
management, the quality of the speakers and the relevance of
the conference programme.
Our keynote speaker, SEMTA chairman and Chairman-Emeritus
of Toyota UK, Sir Alan Jones, enjoyed the to-and-fro of debate
with NFEC members so much that he asked to be invited back to
the Spring National Conference to report progress on Skills
Academies.
Clearly, the investment in improving the twice-yearly conference
is paying off and these get-togethers are now established as
a not-to-miss event. NFEC’s CEO William Devine and NFEC
Chair John Lockey kicked off the two-day conference at the Coventry
Hilton with the NFEC agm, reporting considerable progress over
the last year as well as an NFEC in a sound financial position.
John thanked William Devine, saying that he had made an excellent
start as CEO. John instanced the CEO’s achievement in
driving forward a more-focussed marketing and business strategy,
as well as rebranding NFEC as an organisation that represents
employers as well as teachers and trainers, and indeed as a
membership body unique in post-16 engineering and technology
learning.
A full conference report is available at www.nfec.org.uk/Conference_Report_Autumn06.pdf
Members can find the agm report at www.nfec.org.uk/nfeclogin.aspx
Your Spring National Conference is on Thursday and Friday
24 and 25 May 2007 at the Hilton Hotel, East Midlands Airport.
For a conference update visit www.nfec.org.uk/national_conf.htm
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Presenters Left to Right: Francis Evans,
Director, The Learning Grid; Susan Scurlock, Project Director,
Primary Engineer; Dr Andrew Cave, CEO, The Smallpeice Trust;
Steve Jury, CEO, Promethean; Martyn Chesters, of event sponsor,Yorkshire
Forward; David Jinks, Director, Primary Engineer.
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St Joseph’s RC Primary School, Hurst Green,
won first place in this month’s first National Final of
the Primary Engineer Key Stage 2 (8-11 years) competition.
Another Lancashire school, Our Lady and St Hubert’s RC
Primary, Great Harwood, topped Key Stage 1 (5-7 years), in the
final, which was held at the Eureka! Science Museum, Halifax.
Primary Engineer Project Director Susan Scurlock says “It
was a terrific final, highlighting the magnificent work of which
pupils from Key Stage 1 and 2 are capable. The continued support
of NFEC will help make Primary Engineer of growing benefit to
UK engineering.”
NFEC supports Primary Engineer www.primaryengineer.com
a Primary liaison project under which Secondary design and technology
teachers are trained in the skills, knowledge and understanding
Primary Teachers will need to teach Design and technology effectively
to four-to-eleven-year-olds, as well as to ease pupils’
transition from Primary to Secondary School. |
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Sarah says ‘Step on it’
IMI Chief Executive
Sarah Sillars |
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NFEC is working with Institute of the Motor Industry
(IMI) to ensure that a world-class ‘Learning Supply Chain’
ably supports motor manufacturers and retailers.
In an initiative backed by IMI Chief Executive Sarah
Sillars, NFEC Regional Champions will head the first of a number
of local and regional collaborations with IMI.
The NFEC champions will attend the next round of IMI regional
events, where they will outline the benefits to motor-vehicle
manufacturers and retailers of NFEC’s value-added service.
Practical considerations to be tackled include: |
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Identifying local priorities for action |
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Working with IMI and NFEC member-organisations to create
workable solutions |
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Considering the case for national models of best practice
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IMI is both the professional association for people working
in the motor industry and the leading awarding body for automotive-sector
qualifications.
IMI is campaigning to encourage more youngsters to train as
apprentices in the motor industry, and says that in some cases
the technology of a car can now be more complex than that of
a fighter jet.
To find out more about IMI regional networks and meetings, contact
IMI’s Ian Cheetham, ianc@motor.org.uk |
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MPs are after more money. Again. No change there then.
But there is one interesting, if hardly edifying, feature of
MPs’ latest pay claim.
No, not just the amount – although that’s remarkable
enough - £100,000 a year or 40% on basic salary when total
benefits can already exceed £200,000.
There is also the wily way in which MPs are tabling their claim.
All spending of public money, including MPs salaries, is supposed
to be voted on by MPs alone. That is what used to happen, and
loud though the howls from the electorate might be, MPs regularly
voted themselves inflation-busting rises. But now they have
found a way to get the cash but not the cat-calls.
Citing comparability with doctors or civil servants (neither
of whom, unlike MPs, can set their own pay) the MPs are delegating
the job to the Senior Salaries Review Committee.
Is
there a pay issue in FE?
NFEC suspects that there is, but where is the detail upon which
to base a campaign and take it to MPs and Ministers on your
behalf?
Have you as an FE professional slipped in the pay stakes in
comparison with other professionals?
Give us the facts on pay as you know them in your neck of the
woods, via the NFEC website. |
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